Scourge strikes me as a very ordinary Decepticon, though perhaps a bit more cowardly and less ambitious than average. There's indications early on that he could have taken Cyclonus' job if he wanted it, but he has no desire to do so; he has way too good a sense of self-preservation for that!
Mostly he seems very willing to follow Cyclonus' lead and hide behind him as much as he can. We see in Starscream's Ghost that, even with the Sweeps, he's not much of a leader; the Sweeps will obey Cyclonus far more readily than their actual leader.
The major exception to this is when he puts the Matrix in his chest and becomes superpowered, but that seems a fairly natural reaction to a high shiny object and, well, to becoming drunk enough on power not to care about the risks anymore.
As for function, he's a tracker, although you don't see much of that in canon; sometimes in fic I see him during surveillance, sort of like Soundwave (or the bit in Surprise Party where the Unicronians are watching Daniel Witwicky's birthday party from their base). I haven't really gone there with him, though I would rather like to do something with him and the Sweeps as scouts.
On a narrative level, he's useful for having a perspective on Galvatron and Cyclonus that's closer to them than the other Decepticons, but sane enough and far enough outside their dynamic that he's not caught up in the overpowering emotion of it all.
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timeasmymeasure
Scourge
Date: 2011-02-21 04:11 am (UTC)Mostly he seems very willing to follow Cyclonus' lead and hide behind him as much as he can. We see in Starscream's Ghost that, even with the Sweeps, he's not much of a leader; the Sweeps will obey Cyclonus far more readily than their actual leader.
The major exception to this is when he puts the Matrix in his chest and becomes superpowered, but that seems a fairly natural reaction to a high shiny object and, well, to becoming drunk enough on power not to care about the risks anymore.
As for function, he's a tracker, although you don't see much of that in canon; sometimes in fic I see him during surveillance, sort of like Soundwave (or the bit in Surprise Party where the Unicronians are watching Daniel Witwicky's birthday party from their base). I haven't really gone there with him, though I would rather like to do something with him and the Sweeps as scouts.
On a narrative level, he's useful for having a perspective on Galvatron and Cyclonus that's closer to them than the other Decepticons, but sane enough and far enough outside their dynamic that he's not caught up in the overpowering emotion of it all.